Chapter Text
Rain was quite relentless that day; its heavy droplets drummed against tin roof of the bus. Even though it was a day, the sky was dark as night, covered with black, storm clouds. Vehicle was almost empty; beside the driver there was only a few people inside and they didn't even fill one tenth of seats. There was a man nervously holding his suitcase; some old lady petting very disgruntled cat; bored girl in the front, with headphones in her ears and book in the hands; and two more teenagers seated in last row. They were about age of fifteen or sixteen and looked much alike - brown hair and eyes, same pale skin complexion and similar, somewhat chubby face. Although, there were some differences. He was taller, by nearly a head. Her hair was neatly arranged in a long braid to the hip, while his was messy-looking, reaching up to the neck. Bang was hiding his forehead, occasionally falling onto his eyes and his face was beginning to develop some stubble. Their attitude was also quite contrasting - girl was very excited, she was almost jumping in her seat with joy, while boy was more reserved, even gloomy.
'Way to start holidays...', he thought, looking out the window. Right now they were driving through the forest as dark and bleak as the weather. It was their parents idea, to send them away from all civilisation, and he was still little mad at them. They didn't even ask for opinion, just thrown them in the bus, and shipped away to their grandfather's brother? Whom he and his twin sister never met? And for the whole holidays? Not that he would have better things to do, beside reading or playing video games. But still, they didn't know ANYONE there, place was in the middle of nowhere... Boy sighed heavily, which drew attention of the girl.
"Dippy, why you so grumpy? Turn that frown aaaarouuuund! It's gonna be fabulous! Fresh start and all!", she said, throwing her arms in the air, almost hitting him in the face. "Uh, sorry 'bout that."
"No harm done", he assured her, and smiled lightly. She was always able to cheer him up like that, even when he felt that no one can help him. They had each other for a long time and their twin bond became pretty much unbreakable. She was for him when he felt lonely and miserable, and he was for her when others laughed at her or played another cruel prank. They didn't have much friends back at home. And even those few that stuck around, were more his sister buddies, than his. Maybe she was hyperactive and at times too cheerful, but that attitude earned her more, than standoffish and distrustful of his. Than it struck him. Maybe she was - in her crazy way - right? It was still a middle of nowhere, and they didn't know anyone there, but that went both ways. Nobody knew them. So maybe there was a plus side? Maybe he could try to be more pleasant? Try to make some friends? Spend some good time there?
"Aaaaand that's so muuuuuch better", cheered his sister. He didn't realise, that he too began grinning. "See, even rain has stopped!"
And indeed, nature seemed to stop her watery assault and splashing sounds were no more. As few rays of sun beamed through clouds, surroundings instantly became more enjoyable and when they drove near sign "Welcome to Gravity Falls", he thought that this may be not that bad of vacations...
***
Bus stopped near the house, which seemed more like overgrown shack, nailed together be someone with no building skill. Or maybe that was because of all clumsy repairs on the outside. Two teenagers stepped down the stairs and took their baggage, handed to them by the driver. When the bus departed, they made their way towards the building. Despite her previous attitude, girl was a bit taken aback, same with the boy. That was not something they expected, when they heard about museum run down by their relative. Place was kinda a mess, big sign "Mystery Shack", placed on the roof had some letters hanging askew, weather vane screeched with every move and some more signs encouraged to buy some souvenirs with words like "Buy second, get nothing free" or "Bus tickets with Mystery Shack logo for twice a price!". Used to bland, almost same looking houses in her hometown, girl fell in love at the first sight. This house had a character to it, and she loved it.
"Oh, you are already here, my new slav-, I mean, kiddos", greeted them old man, exiting the door with large sign "Gift" over them and approaching them with big smile. He was dressed in black suit, white dress shirt, red bowtie and brown boots. Fez rested on his head, same color as his bowtie. His outfit was completed by glasses, with a bit thickened top part of black outline and eight ball cane.
After short, but rather funny introduction (including rather poorly executed impersonation of magician - which out of the blue ended with one of the letters from the roof falling onto the ground and then the same "magician" tripping on a goat), they walked towards the house. Siblings entered into what seemed to be some kind of a gift shop. It was full of trinkets, which the majority of could be immediately classified as "useless crap". Funny hats, snow globes, keychains, postcards, plastic figures of clearly fake monsters, et cetera, et cetera.
"Dipper, look, they even have eyes! EYES! How cool is that, bro-bro?, said his fascinated sister, clearly oblivious to what that items really were.
"Eh, Mabel, it's all crap in here", admitted openly Stan. "It's just to snatch some of this sweet, sweet bucks from all this walking wallets who fall into my trap."
After he locked the doors, Stan leaded youngsters through "Employees only" door, into living room. Decorations were one of the strangest that twins ever saw. Just in front of them, against the wall, was some type of cabinet, upper part of which was occupied by fish tank but without actual fish. And on top of it, lied two shrunken heads. Below, on the floor, and near yellow armchair, was standing giant skull, most probably fake, serving as small table. Space on the opposite site of the seat was filled with yet another cabinet, this time a small one, like the nightstand type; lamp on its surface. Hanging over that was some kind of glass light in shape of a house. Floor was partly covered by beige, plush carpet. When twins went deeper into room, they also noticed old TV encased in wood, in front of armchair and recess with table, few chair and big lamp hovering over. Walls were made mostly out of the stone, and partly covered by coming off wallpaper; hanging on them were strange miniature flag and neon sign consisting of letter H.
Dipper had mixed feelings. At first, this seemed just as hotchpotch of items just slapped together in one place, but at second glance, one could feel specific kind of atmosphere hovering in the air. His sister already loved this place from the outside and one could tell why. It already started to rub even on him. However, he had no time to analyze it more, because Stan moved swiftly through and past the doors on their right, opposite of recess and near armchair. With his sister proceeding after their householder he had no choice but to follow.
They moved up the stairs and down the corridor. Dipper hands were going numb from carrying two big bags and hiking bag on his back. Of course, most of this stuff belonged to Mabel, whom took half of her wardrobe. She offered to carry as much as her brother, but he refused, trying to be manly. Fortunately, journey came to the end, when Stan stopped near one of the rooms.
"That will do", he proclaimed, with a subtle touch of sentiment in his voice. "It wasn't used in years and became a little cramped with all this stuff randomly thrown in here, so you will need to move it elsewhere and clean up, kids, but there is definitely two beds and wardrobes"
"We are not exactly kids, Stan", cut in Dipper. He was a bit annoyed, being constantly reminded of his young age. He always wanted to be older, to finally be an adult, to leave behind all this immature children laughing at him because he was smarter than them. Sometime ago he foolishly thought that in highschool things will be better, but not. It was still all the same, he was still sneered upon for just being clever. Often, he wished they would just all disappear. All other students. Besides Mabel. She was his sister.
"Listen, kiddo, I'm so much older than you, that I have the right to call you however I like", replied Stan, glaring at Dipper, with unknown expression filling his eyes. "Also, you really want to be all grown up, huh? It's not all bed of roses and such, believe me when i say that"
It seemed that Dipper hitted a raw nerve with his comment. He wanted to apologise, but then Mabel came into play.
"Don't worry 'bout him, Grunkle Stan, he just got off on the wrong foot, it happens to him from time to time", she said, smiling widely. She slipped into the room and started dancing around, trying to touch and feel everything.
"Woah, she's energetic one, I see", spoke surprised man, watching as she started rolling on the floor and simultaneously coughing, because of all the dust. "Wait, grunkle? What does it even mean?"
"Mabel has the tendency to come up with new words. If I would have to guess, it's combination of uncle and grandfather, pretty accurate in this case", explained Dipper, also smiling lightly. "And I'm sorry, Grunkle, I didn't mean to upset you"
"Don't worry, kid, it's nothing, just... Just live your youth fully, 'kay?", said Stan, scraping his back, and looking the other way. "If you need me, I will be downstairs. It's time off for me, after all"
***
It took them most of the afternoon to move all of the clutter to the storage downstairs. Emptying the room was quite some work, especially that some things were too heavy or too large for just the two of them, and they needed to be clever about shifting them around. After close call on the stairs, Stan told them to catch a breath and get something to eat. They gladly agreed to take a break, being quite hungry after all the lifting.
Meal was surprisingly tasty. Dipper thought to himself that probably with all the years of living alone in the middle of the forest, even if the town was fairly close, old man had no choice but to learn some cooking. And it seemed that Stan was pleased to see Mabel and Dipper enjoying the food, even if he was trying to grumble, that this was for the rest of the week, and now he would need to do the shopping.
"Let's get it over with, I'm dead beat", said Dipper, lifting a bit too many boxes from the corner of the room, attempting to finish the job already, as they were the last ones left. After the dinner, they came back upstairs to finish cleanup. Mabel was already lying on the bed with her face burrowed in pillows. She already dusted and vacuumed room and made the beds.
He made his way towards the doors, balancing wobbly stack of boxes. One on the top slid and fell on the floor scattering its content all over the place. Dipper sighted and said to his sister:
"Can you pick all of that up and put back in the box? I will be back in one sec"
Without additional ballast, tower he created became more stable, and without further problems, he placed them down in the storage room. When he returned, he noticed that while Mabel had mostly done what he asked for, she was also sitting on the bed with some kind of book in her hands.
"Mabes, it's rude to snoop around other people stuff", he said, standing over her. "What's that?"
"It's an old album", she replied, opening it. "Aren't you a little curious how Stan looked, when he was young?"
She began going through the photos, and Dipper joined her, his curiosity overcoming his respect for privacy. Pictures started with some couple. Despite them being black-and-white, twins were able to notice that there were some similarities between them and people on the photo. They figured out, that they were most probably looking at their great-grandparents. Even the thought of that excited them, as they didn't know much about them, same with their grandparents. Nobody ever talked about them that much, beside that they were dead. Mabel flipped few pages, going through images presenting marriage and pregnancy. She stopped at picture of two newborns.
"Dip, do you think that Grunkle Stan and our grandpa were also twins?", she asked, very excited.
"It's probable", answered Dipper. And as the matter of fact, he was right.
Next came photos of the twins and their parents, progressing in age. Some were missing, like if someone took them away. Gaps in time became bigger and bigger, and suddenly woman stopped appearing. And that was not the only change. Once happy family, now looked sad.
"She died?", asked Mabel quietly. This was clearly affecting her, despite her carefree persona, she was very emotional. Dipper wondered if it was wise to keep going, but she didn't stop. She kept going, watching the silent story of the old album. Page flipped one after another, drama happening in front of their own eyes. Even Dipper felt sad, looking at the father, who changed into a broken man. He appeared in less and less pictures, always trying to keep up a good face. Photos became scarce, some pages contained just one or two, and near the end of the book, they ended.
The last photo wasn't even a photo. It was a weathered clipping from "Gravity Falls Gossiper, with the unreadable title. Few words from the article, which Dipper was able to read, send chills down his spine. "Missing". "Presumed dead". "Pines family". He looked at the photo. It presented one of the twins and his father, both in deep sorrow, desperately clasping their hands and dressed in black suits. Now he could say with certainty, that it was Stan's family. Here, he was in his twenties, but his face features were just like the older version of him.
"Oh no...", whispered Mabel, trembling. He knew what to do. To hug her tightly and gently stroke the hair. He felt tears soaking his T-shirt.
"Thanks, Dip", she said after a while, still sobbing a little.
"No problem, sis, I'm here for you", he replied, patting her on the back. When she calmed herself, and declared that she was alright, he loosen the hug. She pulled away and said that she would like to be alone for the while, so he grabbed album, put it in the box, and carried it outside.
Now, after what he saw, Dipper understood what Stan tried to tell him. There is no point in rushing yourself into adulthood, you have to enjoy every little moment of your life. Full of thoughts, he didn't even notice, when he left the storage and returned upstairs. When he entered the room, Mabel was already sleeping, in all of her clothes. He covered her with the blanket, letting her sleep.
Later, when he was in bed and was on the verge of falling asleep, one last thought crossed his mind.
On all the photos, the house was different from Mystery Shack, and yet, on the clipping, they were standing in front of it. Why was that?